AkzoNobel Readies A Restructuring

AkzoNobel plans to reduce costs through a three-year restructuring program that is expected to improve annual earnings by nearly $700 million. Difficult economic conditions and raw material price inflation are driving the cost-cutting effort, the Dutch firm says. An executive committee formed earlier this year has compiled 20 master plans with more than 100 detailed initiatives expected to cost nearly $590 million by 2014. More than 70% of the earnings improvements will come from the firm’s decorative and performance coatings businesses. The balance will come from specialty chemicals. Akzo continues to expand in China, where it will spend $83 million to build a 25 million-L automotive refinish coatings facility in Changzhou by 2014.